Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

For me, it depends on the very fragrance. As I only apply on the neck and chest, some project for hours and I can be standing still or moving and I will smell it continously throughout the day. With others, I wonder whether I have forgotten to put on a fragrance after the morning shower.

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Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

Well the thing with this situation is that your nose gets used to the smell. The purpose of your nose is to pick up on scents that are dangerous to you. If they aren't deemed a threat then your nose just dismisses the smell. With this being said its very likely that you will only smell a fragrance for a bit after applying it to the skin. It doesn't mean that the scent isn't there, it just means your nose dismissed it.

I, like hednic, only spray my neck and chest. But with some fragrances I can detect them hours after application. With others I can't tell after the initial spray. It depends on the fragrance.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

As others have said, this very much depends on the fragrance.

l also find that a fragrance l thought was "quiet" can bloom unexpectedly in certain situations. For example, l apply my fragrance before dressing, & then walk twenty minutes to work. When l take off my coat, l suddenly get a huge burst of fragrance, because my body has warmed up from walking, & this takes quite a while to calm down. Therefore temperature & the amount of physical activity you are undertaking can definitely affect things, for good or ill!

​​"What is this secret connection between the soul, and sea, clouds and perfumes? The soul itself appears to be sea, cloud and perfume..." - from Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

Depends on which fragrance I'm wearing. Since I also spray on the chest, and usually on the forearm, I generally can smell the scent for hours. Sillage on the other hand is a problem area for me. I can't get a handle on it. I ask my wife or a friend at work who also wears fragrances and whose judgement I trust.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

Originally Posted by Oproust

I generally can smell the scent for hours. Sillage on the other hand is a problem area for me. I can't get a handle on it. I ask my wife or a friend at work who also wears fragrances and whose judgement I trust.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

My experience is similar to Danieq's. Sillage is usually hard for me to detect. Scent lasts for 12 or more hours on my wrist when I sniff it. It's easier for me to experience my scents when I don't over apply.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

I agree with everyone who feel this is highly variable. The question is, if you could smell it continuously throughout the day and your nose didn't get use to it; 1) Does this mean that it doesn't jive with your chemistry, and 2) Would you find this annoying or enjoyable?

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

I think a lot of it depends upon your own particular nose; your tendency to become anosmic to a scent you're constantly picking up. If wafts of fresh air reset your nose pretty effectively, you should be able to pick up on your fragrance if it has decent sillage. In my experience so far, after a few hours many fragrances turn to skin scents. That could be partially due to my skin, how it absorbs what is applied topically. I've been trying to moisturize more before applying a fragrance and at times it does seem to extend longevity but not much of an effect on sillage.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

Use a spreadsheet...assuming you apply in the morning before work, annotate each frag on the SS (keep it on your desktop). Have a note section at the end of each line to record such things as where you sprayed, and if you still detect any smell along with the time of day (I usually base it on 2pm timeframe).

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

A few scents seem to project longer, a single spray of La Myrrhe or Miel de Bois for example. But my Shalimar (modern will project only for about 10 or 15 minutes. I spray 5 sprays on forearm, chest and neck. I guess I must become anosomic rather quickly. I can smell these for hours and hours with a direct sniff.

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Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

What I'd like to know is what fragrances a majority of people have found to have excellent longevity coupled with reasonably lasting sillage (meaning it doesn't turn to a skin scent until 8+ hours have passed), while still being a well received/desirable formulation. No hijacking intended--just a quick rundown or link to one of the more useful threads about it.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

I always have the same problem with most fragrances. I spray my chest and back of my neck and usually can't smell anything past an hour. I even try spraying my clothing and it doesn't seem to matter until I notice it when I'm taking my shirt off. There are a few fragrances that I can smell throughout the day with the same spraying. I wish they all did this. It's annoying to me that I can't smell certain things without putting my arm to my nose. I want my scents to be noticeable to me for several hours.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

It very annoying to me too to spray a fragrance on only to have to search for it an hour later. It all depends on the fragrance and number of smells like most here have said. Anosmia is most likely the culprit here. In a perfect world, one spray would smell all day.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

Of course fragrances differ in projection, but I think what most of us experience is olfactory fatigue, more than the fragrance itself actually disappearing that fast. Too many times I've thought a scent I'd put on in the morning was pretty much gone, only to hug a friend in the evening and have him or her compliment me on my fragrance. Granted, that means they got in close, but it's more than I thought was detectable at that point.

Some notes (and aromachemicals) must create olfactory fatigue much more than others. I'd implicate Iso-E-Super, for instance, which seems to make a vanishing act of stuff like Jubilation XXV or some of the CdG incense series, only to have the fragrance pop right back up later, or be projecting quite well for others while your own nose is completely done.

Re: For How Long Can You Smell Your Fragrance After Applying?

Originally Posted by Navyy8

Use a spreadsheet...assuming you apply in the morning before work, annotate each frag on the SS (keep it on your desktop). Have a note section at the end of each line to record such things as where you sprayed, and if you still detect any smell along with the time of day (I usually base it on 2pm timeframe).